Joe's Ancient Orange Mead

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I made this and added pomegranate and it was great. Sorry did not let it age much, my friends came over and it got drank up at 7 weeks. Now I am making another batch and poured in frozen raspberries. Passes the smell test so far....
 
Nice jugs! Where does one find jugs like that? I looked all over for some gallon glass jugs but I had to buy them empty.

Check Whole Foods if you have one close buy. They sell apple cider in one gallon glass jugs. Added bonus of being able to immediately make hard cider by just adding some yeast and an airlock. Then reuse the jig for whatever you like.
 
Just started a 5 gallon batch of this, stepped up the recipie as given. 17.5 lbs of raw honey for 5 gallons. The honey was collected by a local beekeeper from a local barn. The bees had built a hive between the joists of the loft. My concern is the og is off the chart of my refractometer. This makes the og higher than 32 brix or more than 1.1389. I have this in a 6 gallon better bottle, should I dilute this down a bit after initial fermentation?
 
Mine has passed the 5 month mark, not clear and fruit is still floating. It bubbled for about 3 months, I haven't taken any readings or anything. What should I do? My concern is having the fruit in there for too long.
 
I just passed the two month mark. I broke a rule by racking it to another 1 gallon jug.
Its got no fruit or anything.

Its very strong in alcohol burn and has only a slight honey background.
I am thinking about topping it off with a little boiled water or is headspace not an issue on this.
and then letting it age for a gooooood long while.
 
looks like you are correct. It started this morning still slow, but I was worried the very high suger level would prevent it from starting.

Never tried to ferment something before that my refractometer couldn't measure. I am still worried about how sweet thisis going to finish, but guess I'll cross that bridge when it gets here.
 
Just made one of these in my half gallon growler.

1.75 cups Clover honey, boiled with water for 5min because I didn't trust my water source
0.5 orange, zested and sqeeze juice
0.5 stick of cinnamon
1 clove
~15 raisins

My mistake! Added Half tablespoon of bread yeast. I read it again and I just noticed 1 teaspoon for a 1gallon batch. Hope extra yeast won't hurt it.
OG was about 1.098

Update: It's been under 30min and fermentation has started. :)
 
I made my first batch of this on 1/19, it is crystal clear but the fruit hasn't dropped. Should i give it more time or is it ready to bottle now?
 
Decided to listen to creamy on this one.... just finished bottling it and it tastes amazing and is clear enough to read through. Definitely doing another batch
 
Ok I hope this works.




ok pic one should be my meads, the 3 Gallon is a batch of JOAM started on 2/19/13 - If i remember correctly. So it's almost a month. around day 5-6 it foamed up and i had to clean the airlock a few times. Now it is still bubbling every 9-10 seconds, but there is a lot of brown up around the neck, and there is a white foam that is staying on top the fruit. I don't see any lees in the bottom either. Is this normal for almost a month in?

The two on the left are a different recipe, Orange-vanilla, used Red star Premier Cuvee yeast they will be a month old on Thursday.
 
I made a gallon of this just over 2 months ago. I want to bottle, but it looks like it still has some CO2 bubbles going on... Should it be totally free of visible bubbles before bottling?
 
I made a gallon of this just over 2 months ago. I want to bottle, but it looks like it still has some CO2 bubbles going on... Should it be totally free of visible bubbles before bottling?

If you see bubbles its likely not clear (ie can you read a newspaper through it?)

If its not clear you should leave it a while (couple weeks).
 
Wanting to do three or four batches with other fruits in place of the orange. I'm thinking blackberry, blueberry, & huckleberry. Question is does anyone have a suggestion as to how much fruit to use per gallon? Maybe a cup?
 
I've always done it by eye (most of the fozen bag of berries with a little left out) but a cup doesnt sound unreasonable. You can always adjust if you dont have the color you want.
 
The first mead i ever tasted was a blackberry mead from honeywood winery in Oregon..... trying for something similar so I'll try one cup and adjust as needed. Thanks for the input
 
found this thread about a month ago and made this my first ever attempt at brewing anything ever.

I have two 1 gallon batches in the closet going to town.

the first I followed the recipe exactly

the second I:
replaced the raisins with cranberries. They have tannins too, I looked it up.
zested and peeled the oranges
used D47 instead of bread yeast
 
found this thread about a month ago and made this my first ever attempt at brewing anything ever.

I have two 1 gallon batches in the closet going to town.

the first I followed the recipe exactly

the second I:
replaced the raisins with cranberries. They have tannins too, I looked it up.
zested and peeled the oranges
used D47 instead of bread yeast

I'm glad you didnt use the orange pithe with the D47. Keep us posted on the side by side when its done!
 
OK, I did this recipe back in late Nov. (I actually forgot about it!), and I did a taste test. I is like pure ROCKET fuel!! I followed the recipe to a "T", (I may have had a little more honey, maybe a 1/2 pound at most)
Any idea what might have gone wrong? A person in my homebrew club said give it a year at least for mead...
 
OK, I did this recipe back in late Nov. (I actually forgot about it!), and I did a taste test. I is like pure ROCKET fuel!! I followed the recipe to a "T", (I may have had a little more honey, maybe a 1/2 pound at most)
Any idea what might have gone wrong? A person in my homebrew club said give it a year at least for mead...

I am in the same exact position. Its powerful stuff.
I racked to a clean 1 gallon and am going to try it again in the fall of '13
i know the instructions said not to rack but i know fermentation is done, but it needs serious time to mellow. I have it in a dark forgotten closet just waiting.
I didnt top up or anything, hopefully that wont ruin it, but honestly it cant get worse only better so it will sit. mine was made in january so if yours was november then I have even longer to wait than you.
 
Made mine in the 3rd of Jan. I used wyeast dry mead yeast instead. The fruit in finally dropping now. I might bottle this weekend. How long should I age this? Right now its rocket fuel
 
I just took a taste of my batch I made about 9 weeks ago... pretty hot. I think it's gonna be awhile before it cools down.
 
After my first batch turning out so amazing the Second four batches are going..... two blueberry and two mixed berries each split with bread yeast in one and s-33 in the other.
 
Update on my batches....
Unfortunately the mixed berries that i used must have been sweetened or something because both of those erupted violently while i was at work. Thought i would be safe since they were only 3/4 full. They are now only half full...... ouch
 
I'm sure that most don't have the patience to wait this long, truthfully neither do I. But luckily I got so busy brewing that I forgot a couple bottles of my JOAM from two years ago. Do yourself a favor and become absent minded, this is certainly the nectar of the gods. It wasn't bad when I first had it over a year ago, but it still had some edge and some heat; I remember easily picking out individual flavors. Now it is amazingly smooth and balanced. I'm making a new batch this weekend and not allowing myself to touch it for 24 months. Two bottles was not enough.
 
Hi all,

I made a batch of this on the 17th Feb and as of today it is pretty clear but there doesn't seem to be any activity and it seems way to early to be ready. I didn't take an original gravity reading so I have no idea where I started at. Should I just let it sit and see what happens?
 
try to leave it. I am using my old Mr beer fermenter so I can take little samples. Bad thing is the little samples start getting bigger and when its ready there is not much left...LOL
 
Apparently I should not be making Mead. I failed to calculate the amount of honey going into the water and also did not think to use less than 1 gallon of water. 4lbs of honey in 1 gallon of water does not equal 1 gallon in my Gallon jug. :smack:

I did take an OG reading though! About 1.110 (+/-2) :mug:
 
Apparently I should not be making Mead. I failed to calculate the amount of honey going into the water and also did not think to use less than 1 gallon of water. 4lbs of honey in 1 gallon of water does not equal 1 gallon in my Gallon jug. :smack:

I did take an OG reading though! About 1.110 (+/-2) :mug:

just put the additional mead/water in a smaller container for fermenting, you'll be fine.
 
Hey, so the two months is up and I sampled my tweaked recipe, here's how mine turned out.

Given the fact that I used a stronger yeast than bread yeast, and the fact that I had a bit less honey than I was supposed to (beekeeper's going to give me a bigger batch for cheaper next time), the Mead doesn't taste much like honey. But it does taste great!

Since it's my first time, I was scared I'd screw up, but it's actually pretty drinkable. It's very dry, and tastes a lot like white wine. Also, it was a really good call not to add the skin of the oranges in with the mix. It would have spoiled the taste.

I actually like that it's dry. I'll be able to drink a lot without getting sick, unlike with a dessert wine.

All in all, good taste, just doesn't taste like honey enough. I'll be sure to add more honey (and maybe vanilla or whatnot) to the next mix.

Oh, also, I don't know the alcohol %. Gonna go buy the thing for that. I guess it's about as high as a normal wine.
 
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